The Hunger Struck - Confessions of a Food Fanatic.

Figs are a favorite in my house.When they’re in season I find it hard to leave the grocery store without them. When they’re out of season and I happen to find some in an over priced fancy market that I shouldn’t be shopping in I buy them then too. Figs as you may already know are not cheap even when in season because they are so delicate, but despite their delicate nature they are wonderful paired with a wide variety of ingredients both sweet and savory. I generally favor figs in the sweet department. Well actually, I generally just eat figs as they are. This recipe is an exception and is adapted from the September issue of Bon Appetit.

I don’t think that it’s possible for everything to go smoothly when you cook dinner for your in laws for the very first time. I get extremely nervous when I cook for anyone I’ve never cooked for before, so making mistakes where I normally wouldn’t is usually a defining characteristic of these first time occasions. Naturally this dinner was no exception to the rule.

My problem is that I always try to do too much with too little time and definitely should know better by now. I’ve been doing this for years and apparently have learnt nothing. I won’t go into the details of the dinner and thankfully it all turned out pretty good in the end, but let me tell you it was a struggle getting there not to mention that I looked like I just came in from a 10k run by the time they walked in the door. Not an attractive look for me at all.

This is probably the third time in a week I’ve come home starving and thrown myself into making a meal that requires some time to cook. By the time it’s actually ready to eat, I’m no longer hungry because I’ve consumed every available snack food in my pantry. I started out thinking I was going to make Maple Brown Rice Risotto with Mushrooms and Rosemary and fortunately for me I realized the mistake early and quickly changed to Pilaf before I consumed all of our snacks for the week!

It still took an hour to make but I’m pretty sure that if I had stuck to my original risotto idea, I would still be at the stove adding the 2000th cup of chicken stock to the pan and probably swearing off of cooking forever.

Recently when it has been my turn to pick a place to eat out on a special occasion, Italian seems to always be my first choice. I’m not sure why this is. When it comes to fine dining in Vancouver there really is an enormous amount of choice. I think that perhaps more than most people, I have a tendency to go back to the places that have left an impression over and over again . I like the familiar aspect of dining in a place where you know the standard of cuisine you will receive is going to be consistent with your previous experiences. There are a few Italian restaurants in Vancouver that fit this bill and Cioppino’s is right at the top.

This place is consistent across all aspects of the dinning experience. From the service, to the food to the over all experience this place always delivers. From being awarded Gold Winner in the 2007 BC Gold Medal Plates to being voted chef of the year in 2008, owner Pino Posteraro has many accomplishments under his belt. Once you tatse his food you’ll know why.

I’ve been trying to master the art of the perfect pizza crust for a long time. It seems that I’ve tried so many recipes by so many different people and really made no progress what so ever. I bought a pizza stone, read every article that exists on the subject and still I find myself extremely disappointed after each attempt. Naturally I came to the conclusion that the perfect pizza made in a domestic oven is impossible.

Well that is until a few hours ago. While flipping through my Jamie at Home cookbook. I came across his recipes for something called Pizza Fritta. Having glanced at this several times before I thought I would read further to see what set it apart, if anything, from all the rest of those recipes that have been nothing but a let down in the past.

Are you ready for this?